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The team is joined by Guest Kats Rosie Burbidge, Stephen Jones, Mathilde Pavis, and Eibhlin Vardy, and by InternKats Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo, Hayleigh Bosher, Tian Lu and Cecilia Sbrolli.

Tuesday, 17 January 2012

This Kat would like to take the opportunity to thank all of her friends who have taken the time to write to her with their thoughts on the proposed Steve Jobs doll by Chinese manufacturer InIcon (see Kat post here).

On Sunday, InIcon (with its new logo, below, no doubt following Merpel's previous comments) published a statement on its website that it will not be manufacturing or selling the Steve Jobs figurine after 'immense pressure from the lawyers of Apple and Steve Jobs' family' and out of 'our heartfelt sensitivity to the feelings of the Jobs family'. Here is the statement in full:

On 5th October Steve Jobs, the genius, great inventor and visionary, passed away. For the past 25 years I have been a big fan of Steve Jobs following his achievements religiously and using Apple products. His passing left me with emptiness, sadness and a feeling of great personal loss. (I am sure that these sentiments are felt by all of his fans). Four years ago I created a single figurine of Steve which I placed on my desk next to my Mac. I decided to share this memento with the rest of his fans as a commemoration to Steve. The figurine, especially his facial features, was adjusted countless times to achieve his likeness in my memory. I strove to perfect the figurine with the spirit of Steve Jobs because only this will properly reflect my respect and admiration of him.

I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that the original intention for creating the figurine was driven by a fan’s admiration of Steve. We respect copyright and trade mark rights and therefore indicated on our site that we were not providing any Mac, iPhone and iPad models with the figurine. Further, we haven’t used any Apple related brands. Unfortunately we have received immense pressure from the lawyers of Apple and Steve Jobs family. Regardless of the pressure, I am still Steve’s fan, I fully respect Steve, and his family, and it is definitely not my wish or intention that they be upset. Though we still believe that we have not overstepped any legal boundaries, we have decided to completely stop the offer, production and sale of the Steve Jobs figurine out of our heartfelt sensitivity to the feelings of the Jobs family.

We understand that this decision will cause many of the fans’ disappointment, but please forgive us as there is no other alternative unless to have the blessing from Steve Jobs family….We will aim to have full refund to the fans who have pre-ordered.

Lastly, we wish to thank everyone for their admiration and appreciation of the figurine, and again we offer our sincere apologies to affected fans.

The IPKat, while remembering that imitation is often said to be the sincerest form of flattery, still questions whether InIcon had 'overstepped any legal boundaries' on this occasion. What do you think?

Merpel wonders whether, in the court of public opinion, InIcon has indeed overstepped any moral boundaries by producing a figurine so close to the date of Mr Jobs' passing and without 'the blessing from Steve Jobs' family'.

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